Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 120708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 402(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 402(@300wpm)
Tanner gave him a quick nod of thanks, and then started walking out of the kitchen. I envied the relationship this family had with one another. How many times had I longed for a family like this? Too many to even count anymore.
Hardly anyone even noticed we had left. You could feel the excitement in the room, but even that couldn’t lift my suddenly darkened mood. After being so happy with the find earlier, I was quickly falling into a depression, and I had no idea why.
Damn it all to hell! Why did I have to be so afraid to open up my heart?
We walked through the living room and to an area of the house I hadn’t been in yet. Tanner opened a door at the very end of the long hallway and stepped inside. I scanned the room when I walked in. It screamed Ty Senior.
Pictures and paintings of cattle, horses, and what looked like places on the ranch were placed on every single wall. On one was a collection of paintings and drawings that looked to be from all the boys, Blayze included. I walked up to them and grinned as I read the names.
Brock Shaw, age nine. Beck S, age six. TJ, age eleven. Then I came to a painting of a horse. It was done amazingly well, even though you could tell small hands painted it. My heart tumbled as I read the name. Tanner Michael Shaw. Twelve.
I slowly shook my head. “You painted this at twelve years of age?”
The painting was of a buckskin running in an open green pasture. It was dotted with what looked like flowers. I recognized the view. It was looking down from the ridge he had taken me up to on my second day here. The sky in the back was a beautiful mixture of pinks, oranges, and yellows as the sun sank low on the horizon.
Tanner walked up and stood next to me. “I did. I was bored out of my mind one spring day, and my mother challenged me to go paint something on the ranch. It was when I discovered the ridge. I mean, I’d been up there before plenty of times, but that was the day I saw its true beauty. I started to paint it, and then waited for the sun to start setting so I could see what the sky looked like. I quickly painted what I saw, and then got my butt home. I don’t even want to tell you the trouble I got into with my mama for getting back to the barn near dark.”
I chuckled as I glanced from the picture to him. He was staring at it with a smile on his face.
With a spin around the office, I took the rest of it in. A large leather sofa sat at one end of the room. A giant picture window was behind it, and I gasped as I saw the view. A rolling pasture made way to a mountain range that was fairly close to the house. The way the sun reflected off the snow made it sparkle like a million diamonds. It was truly stunning. On the other side of the room was a large fireplace with two oversize leather chairs on either side. I imagined the boys playing in this room when they were younger.
“My goodness. Every single room in this house I swear has a different view.”
Tanner chuckled. “You should see the view from my bedroom.”
I turned and slightly raised a brow. “I’m sure it’s equally impressive.”
He laughed. “I like to think so.”
I shook my head, and the sinking feeling of sadness suddenly came back in a whoosh. I needed to be honest with him before I let things grow between us, because I knew I was sending him mixed signals. This was the moment I needed to decide what to do about my attraction to Tanner. Give in to it or tell him we had to only be friends. I knew what I wanted, and I prayed he would be patient with me.
My phone buzzed in my pocket with an incoming text, and my heartbeat picked up slightly. I had called Cory to tell him I had decided on a piece of property to buy. Even though I had come into my trust fund, I was still relying on Cory as my financial advisor. After all, I was only twenty-four, and I now had a rather impressive bank account. So, I thought maybe it was him reaching back out to me.
I pulled the phone out and saw it was from Mary, an old high school friend and the woman who had cheated with a boyfriend of mine I had been going out with at the time. I had felt so betrayed by her, especially since she had been my best friend and the one person whom I had always counted on being there. And Jase, the guy I had finally allowed myself to open up to, had turned out to be a major dick. I knew I should have let it go. That nothing she could possibly say was anything that I wanted to hear. I hadn’t talked to her since we graduated high school. Then, I caught a glimpse of the text. “I hope you’ve been able to forgive…”